Poverty and Points?
This comes under the heading of "You cannot make this stuff up." Janet and I received a credit card offer yesterday. In the US that is not an uncommon experience. We get several of those in the mail every week. Our sons started getting credit card offers when they were as young as 10.
This offer was different. It was offered by a corporation that supports the nation of Israel. The Mastercard offer used the Abrahamic covenant from Genesis 12:3 "I will bless those who bless you." as their pitch line. The deal was that if you used this credit card, not only would a portion of the proceeds go to help "poverty in Israel," but you could also earn points toward vacations, airfare, hotels and a myriad of other things, while you felt good about helping the poor. I wonder what poor people in Israel they are helping? I wondered if this included Palestinian Christians, who are oppressed both by the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.
No matter what your political take on the situation in Israel, there is a larger issue here. This offer was specifically aimed at Christians. It was an offer to help us all feel less pain, while alleviating our guilt for not being generous and championing the cause of the oppressed. Hey, charge $200 and you can give 20 cents to some poor starving kid or old person. By the way, enjoy your new boots from Aldo that you just charged.
Materialism once again lifts its ugly head and infiltrates what should be a case of almsgiving for the poor, which is above our tithing. It is also a manipulation of scripture. When did "blessing" come to mean just monetary or material gain? Isn't being a child of God the greatest blessing of all? I guess the Palestinian or Iraqi Christians just aren't as good as us. They would be blessed with the stuff we in the West have. Oh by the way, what about those poor Christians in Darfur who are being starved, raped and murdered by thugs backed by the government? They must have had some real disobedience somewhere.
I am not saying that having stuff is bad, but as we head toward Thanksgiving how much stuff is enough? Is it really a sign of blessing? Al Capone and John Gotti must have been really good Christians. They had a lot of stuff. I fear the evangelical movement in particular has latched onto this theology of materialism being the sign of the true blessing of God. It may have turned us into a people who live well beyond our means to show how blessed we are. Have we come to the point where we need to get something, for taking care of the poor, which is a mandate in scripture?
As we head to this season of giving, I am not about being Scrooge and saying we should not give gifts to each other. I think what I am saying is are we really scripturally balanced in our giving. Tomorrow and Tuesday I will have a great blessing, my boys and my daughter-in-law are coming home on those days for Thanksgiving. We will eat a great deal (which as I write this post, I am beginning to struggle with), but we will also take time to remember the poor and oppressed.
I guess I have a few questions. When did our theology go wrong and our need to be rewarded by material things replace the spirit of altruism? What is the real blessing of God? What is the most effective way to share our blessing with the world? Will God judge those of us who are affluent Western Christians more harshly because of our stingy spirits? Do we just live too well, with no regard for the oppressed?
What do you think?
This offer was different. It was offered by a corporation that supports the nation of Israel. The Mastercard offer used the Abrahamic covenant from Genesis 12:3 "I will bless those who bless you." as their pitch line. The deal was that if you used this credit card, not only would a portion of the proceeds go to help "poverty in Israel," but you could also earn points toward vacations, airfare, hotels and a myriad of other things, while you felt good about helping the poor. I wonder what poor people in Israel they are helping? I wondered if this included Palestinian Christians, who are oppressed both by the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.
No matter what your political take on the situation in Israel, there is a larger issue here. This offer was specifically aimed at Christians. It was an offer to help us all feel less pain, while alleviating our guilt for not being generous and championing the cause of the oppressed. Hey, charge $200 and you can give 20 cents to some poor starving kid or old person. By the way, enjoy your new boots from Aldo that you just charged.
Materialism once again lifts its ugly head and infiltrates what should be a case of almsgiving for the poor, which is above our tithing. It is also a manipulation of scripture. When did "blessing" come to mean just monetary or material gain? Isn't being a child of God the greatest blessing of all? I guess the Palestinian or Iraqi Christians just aren't as good as us. They would be blessed with the stuff we in the West have. Oh by the way, what about those poor Christians in Darfur who are being starved, raped and murdered by thugs backed by the government? They must have had some real disobedience somewhere.
I am not saying that having stuff is bad, but as we head toward Thanksgiving how much stuff is enough? Is it really a sign of blessing? Al Capone and John Gotti must have been really good Christians. They had a lot of stuff. I fear the evangelical movement in particular has latched onto this theology of materialism being the sign of the true blessing of God. It may have turned us into a people who live well beyond our means to show how blessed we are. Have we come to the point where we need to get something, for taking care of the poor, which is a mandate in scripture?
As we head to this season of giving, I am not about being Scrooge and saying we should not give gifts to each other. I think what I am saying is are we really scripturally balanced in our giving. Tomorrow and Tuesday I will have a great blessing, my boys and my daughter-in-law are coming home on those days for Thanksgiving. We will eat a great deal (which as I write this post, I am beginning to struggle with), but we will also take time to remember the poor and oppressed.
I guess I have a few questions. When did our theology go wrong and our need to be rewarded by material things replace the spirit of altruism? What is the real blessing of God? What is the most effective way to share our blessing with the world? Will God judge those of us who are affluent Western Christians more harshly because of our stingy spirits? Do we just live too well, with no regard for the oppressed?
What do you think?
posted by Larry at 8:23 AM
1 Comments:
having two coats while your brother or sister has none is theft...all on earth is evryone's...be wary of complex systems that justify luxury in the face of poverty...
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